New clients find you in a variety of ways.
We know Facebook and other social media sites offer one path for consumers to discover you and your practice. Your website and other online options—like the Find a Therapist referral tool at ABMP’s consumer site, Massagetherapy.com—are also important paths you must build and nurture.
But, the best and historically most successful marketing efforts for massage therapists and bodyworkers come with little effort at all. In fact, in most cases, it doesn’t cost a dime.
Word-of-mouth advertising is the best advertising you can get. Why? Because when a trusted source tells me that Mary Smith is the best massage therapist in town and that her skills might help alleviate that pain in my shoulder, I listen. Any hesitations I may have about massage, any barriers I think exist, are easily knocked down by the recommendation from this one trusted source.

So, how can you inspire your current clients to help you build your practice?

Create your own friends-and-family networks: Think of the clients you saw today. Each of those people has a circle of family and friends who trust them and will listen to their recommendations. If you can get a referral from even a fraction of the people you see regularly, you’ve built a healthy second tier of clients.
ACTION: Client education is key to developing a network such as this. Your number one client education tool is Body Sense magazine (www.abmp.com/bodysense), a digital consumer publication highlighting the benefits of therapeutic touch. You should already be emailing this quarterly publication to your clients to reinforce the message of massage; now ask them to forward the publication to the circles they know.
    
Encourage referrals through rewards: Create a program that honors your clients’ efforts to bring people in your door. A great add-on for their next service, a nice discount, a free product of worth—these are all ways to reward current clients who help sing your praises.
ACTION: Design referral cards you can send home with your clients. Leave a spot to put the client’s name to be able to credit the referral, as well as all your contact information. In addition to offering a thank-you to current clients, the referral card might also offer a small discount or a free mini product for the new client that books as a result of that referral.

Who Do Clients Trust?
According to an ABMP 2015 Consumer Survey conducted by Harstad Strategic Research:
• 41% of massage consumers would give a lot of importance to a recommendation from
a sibling.
• 40% of massage consumers would give a lot of importance to a recommendation from a close friend.

Referrals Require Literal and Virtual Business Cards
Literal Business Cards: ABMP members get up to a 20 percent discount from Vistaprint on business
cards. Find this discount and more at www.abmp.com/members/account_discounts_for_members.php.
Virtual Business Cards: Your business website is an important extension of the card you keep in your
wallet. This is the business card prospective clients can access at any time, so make sure it has all the contact information they’ll ever need. Build your free website at www.abmp.com/members/siteWB.php.